1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for supporting a virtual conversation via a computer network such as the Internet such that a plurality of users are allowed to participate therein, and more particularly, to a system and method for supporting a virtual conversation which is performed in a virtual community having a certain space built on a computer network and in which a plurality of users are allowed to participate.
More specifically, the present invention relates to a system and method for supporting a virtual conversation in a virtual community space in which a plurality of participating users are allowed to freely build the whole of or a part of the virtual community space, and in particular, to a system and method for supporting a virtual conversation in a virtual community space in which each participating user is allowed to add an element to the virtual community space and also allowed to change or modify an existing element.
2. Description of the Related Art
Great advances have been made in computing technology, information processing technology, and information transmission technology, and computer systems are now widely used. Network computing technology for connecting computers to each other has become increasingly important. If computers are connected to one another via a network, users of the respective computers are allowed to share information and computer resources, and it becomes possible to easily distribute, transmit, and exchange information. It also becomes possible to execute a process in cooperation with a plurality of computers connected to each other via the network.
Various manners of connecting computers via a network are known. For example, a network called a LAN (Local Area Network) such as Ethernet or a token ring is used to connect computers in a local area, and a WAN (Wide Area Network) is used to connect LANs to each other. Another example is the Internet 10 which has grown to a huge scale via mutual connections among a large number of networks.
On the Internet, various services such as WWW (World Wide Web), News, TELNET (TELetype NETwork), FTP (File Transfer Protocol), and Gopher are available. WWW is a worldwide retrieval system which provides information space having a hyperlink structure, and WWW has made a large contribution to the rapid growth and proliferation of the Internet. In addition to WWW, various applications such as a BBS (Bulletin Board System), and chat are also available on the Internet.
The BBS is a system in which computerized bulletin information is stored in a server on a network and users are allowed to access the information via the network. The advantage of the BBS is that various kinds of information can be managed in a centralized fashion by the server and information can be transmitted in real time among users at various locations in a very wide area.
The chat is a real-time on-line talk made among users via a network, by inputting characters via a keyboard. In general, a plurality of users log in a chat to enjoy conversations in which a statement made by one user is displayed on the monitor screen of each participant. The chat allows users at various distant locations to enjoy real-time conversations or discussions in a virtual world built on the Internet. An attractive advantage of the chat system is that any user can participate in a chat simply by logging in the virtual world provided by the chat system and they are not necessarily needed to be acquaintances to each other in the real world. In the chat, in contrast to the BBS in which interactions are performed in an asynchronous fashion, interactions are performed in a synchronous fashion. The chat is exciting in that a user can immediately receive a response from another user and can input a next sentence depending upon the received response.
In a recent system, a community (virtual city) is built on a computer network, and each user operates his/her own avatar (derived from an incarnation of a Hindu deity) which behaves as the incarnation of the user in the virtual community whereby logging-in users can enjoy the chat via the avatars.
VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) has been developed by expanding WWW to describe three-dimensional information and make hypertext links to objects drawn in three-dimensional graphics. The VRML allows the appearance of a three-dimensional object (or the manner in which the object is illuminated with light) and the geometry of the object to be dealt with as data. Furthermore, a name may be assigned to an object, and the operation of the object to which the name has been assigned may be described in a programming language called Java.
In VRML 1.0, it is possible to describe a three-dimensional object in a static fashion such that the object changes in response to an operation of a mouse performed by a user. On the other hand, the specifications of the VRML 2.0 are based on the “Moving World”, and the VRML 2.0 provides, in addition to functions provided by VRML 1.0, various functions which allow a three-dimensional object to behave autonomously, an animation to be mapped, audio data to be dealt with, and an interactive expression to be achieved.
A three-dimensional virtual community space which may be shared by a plurality of users can be described in VRML. A three-dimensional chat is available in which user can enjoy conversations in a three-dimensional virtual community space. The three-dimensional chat makes it possible for users to communicate with each other in a virtual but realistic community built on the Internet.
A three-dimensional virtual space described in VRML may be downloaded from, for example, a WWW server via the Internet. An avatar is assigned to each user who has logged in the virtual community space. The avatar is one of application objects generated by an application. Information (such as a current location, clothes, name, or sex) about each avatar in the virtual community space is supplied to all logging-in users and avatars of the respective users are displayed on the monitor screen of each user. Each user can visit desired locations within the virtual community space via his/her avatar as if the user were actually in the virtual community space. A text input by a user is displayed in the form of a speech balloon of his/her avatar on the monitor screen of each user.
Unlike the old-fashioned chat system in which only characters are displayed on a time-sequence basis, the three-dimensional virtual community provides visually attractive world to users. Because it is possible to receive a response in real time from a user to whom a conversation is being made, the conversation can be exciting. The users can share events and virtual or quasi experiences which occur or are encountered in the virtual community world. In addition to conversation, a user may enjoy a game-like interactive operation in which the user may search for another avatar or escape from a particular avatar within the virtual community space. A change in time or season or in another factor which occurs in the real world may be introduced into the virtual community space so that the virtual community space becomes more realistic, more enjoyable, and more comfortable for users.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 9-81781, which has been assigned to the present applicant, discloses a three-dimensional virtual space which is displayed by means of three-dimensional graphics so that a user is allowed to freely walk to visit, via an avatar, various locations in the three-dimensional community space. The three-dimensional community space disclosed in the Patent Application cited above may be described using the VRML language. Various cyberspaces in which users are allowed to enjoy a chat via avatars are discussed in Nikkei Electronics, 1996, 9.9 (No. 670), pp. 151–159.
In many chat systems, an avatar is allowed to use various items such as cloths, accessories, and tools, to achieve an improvement in ease of virtual communication among participating users, to make the virtual communication more enjoyable, and to establish a more realistic infrastructure in the virtual community space.
For example, the virtual community space may include a business card system which allows personal information to be exchanged between avatars via business cards, a distribution system (which allows a virtual shop to be opened, virtual money to be used, and items to be exchanged by barter), and/or a virtual mail system. (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 11-203009, which has been assigned to the present applicant, discloses a technique of introducing business cards into a virtual community space. In this technique, communication between users becomes possible by giving a business card to a virtual creature object bred by a user who does not currently have access to the virtual community space.)
However, in many three-dimensional chat systems, participating users are allowed only to visit various locations in the three-dimensional space which has already been built and to use items which have already been given by the system. In other words, the three-dimensional virtual space is a static space for participating users, and the participating users are not allowed to build the virtual space, add an element to the virtual space, and change or modify an existing element. This limits the reality of the virtual community space in which participating users live.